Harvester
The Harvesters were an alien race that wiped out civilizations, from planet to planet. They debuted as the tertiary antagonists in ID4: Independence Day, and the secondary antagonists Independence Day: Resurgence; they were introduced as the main antagonists, but this was a misinformation campaign to hide the films' true main villains. Nevertheless, they are the foremost antagonists in the entire Independence Day franchise. Information The Harvesters are extraterrestrial lifeforms that came from an unknown planet or galaxy, lead by Harvester Queens, and possibly the Harvester Empress. They are (according to Thomas Whitmore, the president of the United States in the 1st film) "like locusts", and wipe out organic planets that can inhabit life, and then move on to the next. This was proven true, as demonstrated by the Sphere's holograms. They also wear bio-mechanical suits that they use while piloting their ships. History Backstory The Conquest Though it is unknown what time they came into existence, the Harvesters however were thought to be the threat of the universe. This was due to their plague-like behavior and their need to harvest the resources of the worlds they encountered for survival and advancement, leading to the extinction of the planet's inhabitants, which they watched in despair. War against the Sphere's Species The creatures would eventually find themselves in an intergalactic war with a trans-sentient species who fought them for thousands of years, under the command of the Harvester Queens that were evil. The Harvesters eventually fought these beings to the brink of extinction, but one survived, and she begun forming a rebellion of surviving aliens whose worlds were obliterated by the Harvesters. The Harvesters then realized from their mistakes, and overthrew their evil Harvester Queens. Eventually, they would find Harvester Queens that truly care about their species, and other sapient beings. Since then, these creatures have searched for the surviving member of their all but extinct opponents, and gain knowledge of the sanctuary planet where the Resistance Military Center is located (for Earth's Harvester Queen, to destroy it, for the other Harvesters, for help). First Contact with Humanity Crash-landing in New Mexico In 1947, a Harvester Attacker crash-landed on Earth in Roswell, New Mexico, and three pilots were found. Two died in the crash and the other died a few weeks after. Their ship was taken and undergone repairs; however, no technology was taken from the vessel, as no Colony ship or Harvester Mothership was nearby to activate the vessel. ID4: Independence Day On July 2nd 1996, a Colony ship arrived in the Sol System, and made its way to Earth. It stopped outside of the Earth's atmosphere, and sent many City destroyers to wipe out all of Earth's major cities. The City destroyers did not attack at first; instead, they went above many major cities, including Los Angeles, New York City, Washington D.C., Moscow, Paris, and many more. Then, every City destroyer fired its primary weapon, destroying most capital cities and more. Above Los Angeles, the counter offensives failed because of the ship's shields. Even nukes were ineffective in damaging it. However, David Levinson came up with the idea to implant a virus into the Colony ship using the Harvester Attacker that crashed in 1947. With the shields gone, they could also take down the City destroyers. This plan worked as Steven Hiller flew the ship into the Colony ship, and Levinson was able to upload the virus. Although missiles were still relatively ineffective against the City destroyer's armor above Area 51, a pilot named Russell Casse flew into the center of a City destroyer over area 51 just as it was about to fire its primary weapon. This caused the ship to effectively destroy itself, as the weapon impacted a target too close. Discovering that this was the way to defeat them, word was soon spread around the world on how to destroy a City destroyer. Meanwhile in the Colony ship, Captain Hiller and Levinson were able to fire the nukes directly into the center of the Colony ship. The firing caused their ship to come loose, and they had 30 seconds to fly out before the Colony ship exploded. They were able to escape in time, and the Colony ship blew up behind them. Back on earth, City destroyers were going down all over the world, as the word had been spread on how to destroy them. Although the Harvesters were defeated, the war had costs millions of lives, and 108 cities were destroyed as well as 35 more badly damaged. Aftermath of the War Congo-Ground War Although the Harvesters had lost their Colony ship and most of their City destroyers, many of them survived and began fighting a Resistance war against the humans on the ground. In the United States and Europe, the Harvesters were eliminated within days, but in other less developed countries, defeating the Harvesters took many months, and even 10 years in Congo. This gave them enough time to send a distress call to to the Earth's Harvester Queen while not knowing that she is a dictator, thus leading to the War of 2016. Independence Day: Resurgence In 2016 exactly 20 years after the War of 1996, Earth's Harvester Queen received the distress call, and began making her way towards Earth, wanting to finish what her minions started in 1996. Wanting revenge, she came with her Harvester Mothership, which was about as big as the Atlantic Ocean. To begin her attack, the Harvester Queen started to use the gravity of the ship to lift objects and buildings up from places around the world, and drop them to kill people for pleasure. This also caused Jasmine Hiller to die. Overview Physically, they are no more durable than a Human, but they do possess far superior technology, including enormous fleets of ships; defense fields to prevent missiles from reaching their ships' hulls; highly destructive weaponry and protective bio-mechanical suits. The aliens have a slender, quasi-humanoid body with three-jointed limbs and only two digits on their hands and feet. Their head is enlarged. They have large, pupil-less reflective silvery eyes (or eye-like organs) and a number of long, grasping tentacles protruding from their suits' backs. Lacking vocal chords, they communicate using a form of telepathy. They are also able to control other beings, at least partially, by attaching tentacles to their necks. They apparently do this in order to communicate with non-telepathic beings. They travel around the galaxy in the massive Harvester Motherships, which release the smaller, but still humongous, Colony ships, being around 550 km (341.75 mi) in diameter. A Colony ship can deploy numerous smaller, city-sized spacecraft, called City destroyers. When invading an inhabited planet, the Harvesters' military tactics consist of large-scale attacks, unintentionally, with the exception of the Earth's Harvester Queen. This species breathes oxygen and requires similar environmental conditions to humans, which is possibly the reason why they became interested in Earth in the first place. Although a single Harvester Attacker crashed on Roswell in 1947, the actual invasion started in 1996. At the end, the attacking Harvester swarm was defeated, but not before they were able to send out a distress signal notifying others of their species to their plight. Subsequently, the nations of Earth would establish new technology based off that left behind by the Harvesters. The Congo Ground War would continue for another ten years until the last Harvester holdouts in the Congo were defeated. In 2016, the Harvesters returned to Earth to seek out revenge for their lost swarm. Notable Members * Harvester Supreme Commander * Captured Harvester pilot Technology The technological standpoint of the Harvesters is clearly far more advanced to those of the humans, and possibly their past enemies. They have mastered the usage of energy based weapons, deflector shields, and even city-destroying spacecraft. Despite their technological advancements, the computers have not been outfitted with anti-virus software, which is what caused them to lose against the remaining human forces. The virus caused a major flaw in their systems, which crippled the shields on all their vessels near Earth, and even their Colony ship. The technology of the species, however, is highly remarkable, as it was designed not, in any way, to be dissected, but built upon. This is how humanity harnessed their technology to create what they call "Hybrid Technology", such as H-8 Global Defenders. The Harvesters have also apparently have created ways to travel faster-than-light travel by either creating or harnessing wormholes to travel from solar system to solar system. One bit of technology they possess is the use of a cloaking device, which was never seen on ships in the previous film; however, the massive Harvester Motherships possess a cloaking device. The bio-mechanical suits of the Harvesters are also known to give them some durability; however, the weak spot is their back where the tentacles are located, like a Queen. Hitting this with anything, even a machete, will cause the suit to open up, leaving the Harvester inside exposed to attack. Gallery Alien close up.jpg|A closeup of a Harvester with a bio-mechanical suit on. Lab Alien.png|A Harvester with it's suit half opened. Lab Alien-2.jpg|A Harvester's bio-mechanical suit being opened. Category:Characters Category:Aliens Category:Species Category:ID4: Independence Day